


No Government Today, Only Snow Angels

by Syntax



Series: 50k Challenge Oneshots [7]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Ghost ascended to the throne, Hollow is doing Hollow things, Hornet is running Deepnest, Or Whatever Ending, Post-Dream No More Ending (Hollow Knight), Snow Day, Vessels don't know what snow is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22596748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syntax/pseuds/Syntax
Summary: Far under the surface where snow would usually gather, Ghost stared out from their royal office room into the City of Tears with a characteristically empty expression, utterly entranced by what had happened to the city's eponymous rain overnight.  Rather than droplets of water, countless small crystals of ice were falling from the great cavern's ceiling.  It was beautiful.  It was confusing.What on earth was happening to their kingdom?
Relationships: The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & Hornet & The Knight
Series: 50k Challenge Oneshots [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1627744
Comments: 16
Kudos: 168





	No Government Today, Only Snow Angels

Snow was not something that came often to Hallownest. Largely, this was because the kingdom was primarily located underground; the logistics of trying to bring snow into the White Palace or the City of Tears were utterly maddening. But that was not to say that it was not impossible for snow to come to Hallownest. Just that it was very, very unlikely.

About as likely as a forgotten vessel killing a god they were never meant to encounter and ascending to a throne they were never meant to take with a sibling they were never meant to know at their side.

Far under the surface where snow would usually gather, Ghost stared out from their royal office room into the City of Tears with a characteristically empty expression, utterly entranced by what had happened to the city's eponymous rain overnight. Rather than droplets of water, countless small crystals of ice were falling from the great cavern's ceiling. It was beautiful. It was confusing.

What on earth was happening to their kingdom?

They turned to their tallest sibling, standing resolute behind them as any proper knight should before their king. The Hollow Knight had lived in Hallownest far longer than Ghost had, even if much of that time was spent locked away in the Black Egg Temple. Surely they might know what was going on?

The Hollow Knight turned to address their king, and slowly shook their head. These crystals were beyond even their (comparatively) vast knowledge of Hallownest's weather patterns.

Ghost let out a small huff of void and started heading for the door with their taller sibling trailing dutifully behind.

If their sibling could not tell them anything about this strange crystal situation, then they would simply have to go and check it out for themselves.

Exiting the tower that served as their makeshift "Castle" posed only a new question when Ghost set foot into the city streets: not only were there crystals falling from the cavern ceiling, but there was an accumulation of some strange, white substance on the cavern floor. Curious.

There weren't many bugs walking around in the city's sidewalks. There weren't many bugs left in the City of Tears to begin with after the Infection had claimed so many of them, but even taking the grand city's decimated population into account, it seemed like most bugs were staying indoors today. The few bugs that Ghost could see going out and about like normal seemed to dislike contending with whatever it was that littered the ground. That settled it. Now the small vessel needed to know what was going on if their people were having issues with it.

Ghost took a careful step into the strange substance. Odd. It was white like dust or ash, but also cold and wet like the Void Sea. Ghost took another tentative step. And another. The Hollow Knight peeked their head out of the tower door to look at their smaller sibling in silent confusion as they took slow, measured steps in the strange white sea. They gestured to their sibling to come back into the tower. Ghost gestured in return to come out onto the street.

Putting on the very slightest air of being made to do something against their will, the Hollow Knight squeezed themself out of the small tower doorway and stepped out on the strange field of cold, wet not-ash.

They then immediately slipped on the wet ground and toppled onto the street with a muffled clamor.

Ghost scrambled to assist their sibling, only to slip and fall in into the cold whiteness themself.

Oh.

Oh, it was _soft_.

The small king of Hallownest gathered some of the strange whiteness in their claw. It was soft yes, and it was wet, yes, but it clumped together with even the slightest amount of force. They let go of the clump. It fell to the ground and splattered gently. They pulled themself up into a sitting position. Very curious indeed.

Beside them, the Hollow Knight struggled to right themself with only one arm, succeeding more in leaving wide indentations in the white ground than in actually lifting themself up. Ghost examined the shape the indents made in the strange substance. They wondered...

The Hollow Knight finally righted themself only to hear a small squishing noise as their king dropped back down onto the ground and started moving their limbs in wide swooping motions. Not really having any understanding of why Ghost was doing such a thing, the larger vessel merely shrugged and fell to the ground once more, following their sibling's lead.

Hornet ambled into the City of Tears with a clear purpose to her step, thin arms full of papers and plans and diagrams of everything that she had wanted to go over with her siblings regarding the political relationships between Hallownest and Deepnest for the coming months. There was a lot of work that went into managing a country, especially a country that had more ill history with its neighbors than not, but Hornet was determined to see that her parents' kingdoms would not turn on each other so soon after their common enemy of the Radiance had been defeated. To do that, she would need the full cooperation of her siblings in Hallownest as she worked to smooth the transition between enemies to allies for their kingdoms.

A notably dry chill hit her as she entered the city proper. Hornet looked around at the City of Tears. The water coming down from the Blue Lake had frozen apparently, coming down on the city as snow instead of rain. She make a small clicking noise at the sight. On the one claw, snow in Hallownest was surely a lucky sign considering how rarely such a thing occurred. On the other claw, owing to that rarity, none of Hallownest's streets or buildings had been made to account for snow, so this lucky sign could actually end up being a significant health risk to the uninformed bug.

She rushed as much as she could to the Central Tower in hopes of reaching the Hollow Knight and little Ghost before anyone got hurt. The city's streets were slippery, but she'd had enough practice on the snowy cliffs of the Kingdom's Edge to prevent any major missteps.

Within a few minutes of running she could already see the entrance to the Central Tower. Good. Now all she needed to do was find—

Hornet skidded to a stop in the icy street. A few of the papers she was holding fluttered out from between her arms, but she didn't really register the movement.

She stared, uncomprehendingly, at the veritable field of snow angels littering the ground outside of the tower, and the two vessels in the middle of it all happily making more.

"...Have you two been doing this all day?" Hornet asked.

Little Ghost popped their head up from the snow and nodded with enthusiasm.

"So you haven't gotten any work done at all today?", she pressed.

Ghost didn't answer her. The vessel actually seemed to only just remember that being King took work at all.

"So I guess you two have never seen snow before?"

The Hollow Knight emerged from their place in the snow-covered ground at the unfamiliar word, while Ghost scrambled up out of the snow and rushed over to hear more from their knowledgeable sister, tugging insistently at her cloak. Evidently the answer to that question was no.

Hornet sighed. "Alright. Let me take these inside first, and then I can show you about snowballs."

The vessels cheered silently at the prospect of learning something new. There was no work done on that day.

**Author's Note:**

> synsyn the dancing bear 11/18/2019: imagine going to the capital city of the kingdom you live in and the government is suspended that day because the king saw snow for the first time and promptly freaked out  
> synsyn the dancing bear 11/18/2019: you turn to their adult sibling, the one who was raised by the old king before his death and surely has more sense than the new king, only to find them freaking out as well because they too have never seen snow before  
> synsyn the dancing bear 11/18/2019: no government  
> synsyn the dancing bear 11/18/2019: only snow angels


End file.
